Beltran leaves Monday's game with elbow injury

Carlos Beltran left Monday's game after injuring his left elbow while in the indoor batting cage.(AP)

New York Yankees outfielder Carlos Beltran was removed from Monday night's game because of a hyperextended left elbow, and underwent an MRI shortly after the game ended.

According to manager Joe Girardi, Beltran, who was the starting DH in the Yankees' 9-7 loss to the New York Mets, hurt his elbow swinging in the indoor batting cage between at-bats, and had to be lifted for pinch-hitter John Ryan Murphy in the seventh inning.

"Someone came by and told me what it was with his elbow. I didn't have a long conversation with him about how sore he was, but Carlos seemed pretty upset," Girardi said after the game.

While Beltran is day-to-day, pending the results of the MRI, Girardi said there was concern because it was enough for Beltran to ask to come out of the game.

The injury could be a devastating one for the Yankees, who are quite banged up as the Subway Series rolls on -- especially in the outfield -- as Ichiro Suzuki was unavailable Monday because of knee and back pain stemming from an attempted sliding catch Sunday in Milwaukee.

"For Ichiro not to hit on the field (before the game), I don't know if I've ever seen that," Girardi said. "He's day-to-day, he just kind of jammed his knee a little bit and his back was sore, and he felt like he couldn't swing, so we had to give him a day off completely."

In addition, Mark Teixeira was limited to a ninth-inning, pinch-hitting appearance Monday because of lingering soreness and fatigue in his legs, and the bullpen was without Shawn Kelley (back) once again while Dellin Betances and Adam Warren were unavailable because of recent use.

Any lingering effects from Beltran, Ichiro, or Teixeira's conditions -- or even Kelley's, given the recent workload of the bullpen -- could lead to the Yankees having just a backup catcher available off the bench on Tuesday or going forward, but Girardi wasn't immediately sure if a move would be made to add reinforcements.

"It's something that we'll wait to see what Carlos is, and it's something we'll talk about," Girardi said. "We should get Betances back tomorrow, and hopefully Kelley…we'll just have to wait and see."